Ordinary, out of the ordinary and extraordinary moments all add up to "KarensOrdinaryLife"!

Oatmeal Coconut Bananies

Maybe it won’t sound as trendy to some, but the everlasting “trend” in our household is saving money wherever and whenever we can. Buy it cheaper, do-it cheaper and make-it cheaper however we can.

I’m always looking for ways to save on our household and food budgets, along with everything else. One of my favorites for saving on our food budget (besides sales, buying in season and coupons) is the “day-old” bread rack at the one of our two supermarkets.

Well, I just discovered another favorite the other day at the other supermarket…red-banded bananas! Yep, red-banded bananas. No, they’re not a new variety of banana. 🙂 They are bananas that are ripe and ready-to-eat right now. No green ones in this bunch!

The great thing about these red-banded bananas is that they are 20-30 cents a pound less than their green counter-parts. Woohoo! I get to pay less and I don’t have to wait four days to eat my bananas!!

Yes, there is a downside if you’re one of the “half-empty” types. The downside? All the bananas are ready right now and while most of them are without bruising, some may be bruised.

But…if you’re a “half-full” type, you’ll know that this is not a bad thing. Those bruised and very-ripe guys are great for baking! In fact, to have bananas for baking, we have to buy them and wait for them to get over-ripe to use them…and we paid full price and waited a week to get those over-ripe bananas. So, for me, the red-banded bananas are a great deal, not just money-wise, but time-wise as well.

The moral here?…Waste-not your money…Waste-not your time. And finally, waste-not your food by throwing away things that can still be used, such as over-ripe bananas. They can be used for countless things…muffins, breads, cookies, etc., and this recipe is a great way to use those red-banded bananas!